Although airbags are generally mounted to deploy toward the expected position of a vehicle occupant, at times the vehicle occupant may be out of position, e.g., too close to the airbag, such that activation of the safety system, particularly an airbag may be harmful. However, systems which attempt to predict where the vehicle occupant will be during the time the airbag is deploying are limited by the necessity of predicting the future with all the uncertainty that entails. A recently developed approach is to monitor the deployment of the airbag itself and to open a vent to stop airbag deployment if the airbag prematurely impacts a vehicle occupant. In this way the necessity of predicting the future is avoided and action by the vehicle safety system is taken based on the actual interaction between the vehicle occupant and a deploying airbag. One effective way to obtain this information is to mount one or more tape dispensing cartridges within the airbag with the ends of the tapes fixed to the interior of the airbag as taught, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,379. As the airbag is deployed, the rate of tape extraction is monitored. A sudden reduction in the tape extraction rate indicates that the airbag has encountered a vehicle occupant. Static charges present on the dispensing tapes, however, can cause an electrostatic discharge to the tape sensors which interferes with the accurate collection of sensor data, or can even damage electronic components.
What is needed is a means for dissipating static charge on the tape that lessens the possibility of electrostatic discharge related interference with the collection of sensor data.